Theorising Society-Irish Style

dublin | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Wednesday May 24, 2006 01:13 by jim travers

Commodity and Globilisation, what if, Ireland

Commodity is one of the basic fundamental requirements that enable the capitalist system to operate in a world of varied political, religious and multi-racial societies.

Commodity is one of the basic fundamental requirements that enable the capitalist system to operate in a world of varied political, religious and multi-racial societies. In any society, commodity is a basic human requirement that enables one to buy, trade or sell products and goods, which as a result of that process will enhance one’s financial and social status within a community or society. Mark’s argues that ‘the value of a commodity is determined by the cost of the labour and the time it takes the society to produce it’. There again, labour is a commodity the proletariats (workers) use as a means of survival through the financial payment of a weekly wage in order to purchase other essential commodities, while the bourgeoisie (bosses) use the resources of labour as a means of generating profit.

In this short article I wish to analyse the importance of “Commodity” within any society including the wealth generated within a society as a result of the capitalist modes of production that produce an immense accumulation of commodities. The words ”Money makes the World go Round” from the song “Money” in the hit musical ‘Cabaret’ (Kander and Ebb) may have been written as a musical expression by the composer of a system that is increasingly expanding throughout the world, but money really does make the world go round, be it just about.

The capitalist system with its consumer based commodity driving force has now begun to invade societies and cultures that once scorned the very idea of western style capitalist system in their land. One might ask, is the provision of immense and varied forms of commodities a global capitalist method of generating wealth and power for the bourgeoisie at the expense and suffering of the proletariat. Or is it a method by which the order of class is determined, to which class in itself is a commodity. Does it have the domino effect the Americans once feared in their fight against Communism in South East Asia, but have now a globalise reason for those domino’s falling as quickly as possible to the advantage of a capitalist system?

The capitalist system is an open and competitive system whereas the communist system as a state-controlled system is void of incentive and creativity. Both systems embrace a common ideal that goods have to be produced so that consumer’s may be able to purchase them. If everything has a defined value that makes another want the security or use of that value then everything becomes a commodity.

Within any society an order of authority must be present in order for that society to function, that is, in itself, a commodity of power and status which is sought by individuals or political parties. Irrespective of the society one comes from, one thing is common to all, there are winners and there are losers, there are leaders and there are followers. There is class and there is commodity of class to which we all play an active part in consolidating and improving our own personal wellbeing.

As globalisation has long been part of capitalism then commodity has been the method by which the globalised spread of capitalism has taken place.
‘Without slavery, no cotton; without cotton, no modern industries. Slavery has given their value to the colonies; the colonies have created world trade; world trade is the condition for large-scale industry’ (S.W.Griffith). In Ireland' case, no cheap labour, no economic growth, no economic growth no Celtic Tiger and then once again mass emigration of an Irish workforce at the cost of cheap labour imported from outside the state. This is a generated by a capitalist employer based greed for ever increasing profits that price our competativeness out of exixtance. The Ryder cup will be a classical example of Ireland showing the world that we are far to expensive because of the capitalist greed to milk the system to extinction while at the same time workers remain within the same system of borrowing to live or achieve the fruits of the capitalist consumer market place.

A commodity based on human exploitation may be part of a capitalist system but it is also derived from consumer consumption based on commodity fetishism spurned on by consumers in developed economies demanding new products and services that provide value for money. Based on an open competitive market, manufacturers exploit cheap labour markets to satisfy their need to remain competitive and economically strong.

Merit Students Encyclopaedia defines commodity as “An article of trade or commerce, ware or product, something whose usefulness is exploited or turned to advantage for profit; something bought or sold”. (Merit Student Encyclopedia; 1973: p202). Karl Mark’s argues that people within capitalist societies find their material life organised through the medium of commodities. They trade their labour for a special commodity called money and then use that commodity to purchase commodities produced by others.

In Capital by Karl Marx, this argument is presented by tracing the formal aspect of a value. Mark’s defines the means of production as “ commodities that possess a form in which they……enter productive consumption.” Whereas he defines the means of consumption as “ commodities that possess a form in which they enter individual consumption of the capitalist and working class.” Marx focused mainly on production and had a bias towards the methods and means of production that favoured the bourgeoisie at the expense of the proletariat.

The major problem with Marxist analysis from the point of view of those who do not share Marxist political values is that it is primarily concerned with problems of class, exploitation and large scale historical changes out of which is expected to emerge a socialist order in which there will be work satisfaction, peace and plenty. (Tony J. Watson).

Like the perpetual motion machine the desire to construct a world society that is based on social equality for all, although desirable, can never be achieved for reasons of human nature alone and the desire for personal wealth and financial security.The Americans and their all inspiring capitalist
system has shown the world that what America wants it gets, even if it has to take what it wants by force in the name of democracy, freedom and its open, privatised and capitalist modes of production that increasingly require public intervention to maintain its sanity.

From a Marxian point of view the proletariat deserved just about all of the money earned through the capitalist system of production as all value is derived from the use of labour. It is my opinion that because of this bias towards a system that appeared to favour a particular section of society. Marx failed (at that time in history) to anticipate or appreciate the long term benefits that would emerge for workers (proletariat) through education, job skills, business opportunities and most importantly the ability to move into a class he defined as the bourgeoisie.

These benefits become more attainable when a democratic system of administration is present and the capitalist system operates within a regulated framework of society.This also brings into question the Irish governments desire to privatise state assetts such as AerLingus, CIE and a number of key state service that have a direct impact on the availability of such service to all citizens of the nation without the key element being the ability to pay for such services. Privitasing ket state services is not in the interest of democracy and most certainly is not in the interest of all the people in this state. Capitalism works well when its image is portrayed as being in the interests of the consumer while its intended objectives is at the expense of the consumer.

Although Marx looked forward to the ultimate demise and disappearance of capitalism, he had to contend that it had an objectively progressive character. Because of this he possibly paid the greatest compliment to the capitalist system when he declared that the bourgeoisie ‘ has been the first to show what man’s activities can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former exoduses of nations and crusades’ (Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, MESW, Vol. 1). It is my opinion that by paying this tribute to the enemy of labour, Marx acknowledged that the progress of labour as a commodity was in the collective interest of society as a whole.

In the closing years of the twentieth century commodity took on a new meaning, in that life itself became a commodity in the form of surrogate motherhood and sperm banks. With the help and assistance of a newfound technology, modern science helped to develop a new market of people on demand, that when fully exploited, would extend the capitalist idealism of commodity to the very basis of life itself. ‘The activities of labour does not just produce commodities, but also turns itself and the worker into a commodity, and it does this to the same extent that it produces commodities in general’. (Marx, from the “Paris Notebooks”; 1884).

Marx’s argues that ‘As use values, commodities are, above all, of different qualities, but as exchange values they are merely different quantities, and consequently do not contain an atom of use value. If then we leave out of consideration the use value of commodities, they have only one common property left that of being products of labour. But even the product of labour itself has undergone a change in our hands… there is nothing left but what is common to them all; all are reduced to one and the same sort of labour, human labour in the abstract’.

Mark’s devotes his main attention to analysing the relationship between the use of human labour and the industrialisation of that labour. In the modernisation and more efficient use of labour, Marx sought to justify his belief that the key link in every process of the production, manufacture or use of a commodity was the use of labour that brought about someone or something as that commodity. This modernisation through industrialisation produced commodities of people as cheap labour, but later on, developed into commodities of skilled labour where labour had a changing and independent financial value.

Suddenly labour as a skill was in demand and in later years would involve governments providing industrial training and grant aiding businesses to develop those skills and in so doing feed the growing system. As industrial output grows, costs fall and consumer demand for products increase thereby starting the cycle of expansion, recruitment and increased product manufacturing and development. Labour becomes producer of a commodity as consumer activity stimulates the labour for that commodity. ‘This Fetishism of commodities has its origin, as the foregoing analysis has already shown, in the peculiar social character of the labour that produces them’.
(Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1).

This can also be seen today in Dubai where cheap labour is helping to build Dubai ( a political objective and arguement to Ireland's sustainable success, the exploitation of workers) into the commercial capital of the Middle East. Labourers from south Asia work long hours for low pay so that they can send money home to feed their families. The men and women who come mainly from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are mainly unskilled, uneducated and desperate.
" In 2003 when the world bank met in Dubai, Human Rights Watch (HRW) appealed to it to argue the case with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government for better treatment of migrant workers. HRW appeals fell on deaf ears. Apologists for the labour system, including many western companies and expatriates who benefit from a cheap compliant workforce, say workers have come to Dubai voluntarily". (Nick Meo, Sunday Tribune; 2005: p15.).

The initial use of cheap labour stimulates the drive for economic growth, which in turn generates the need for a skilled and professional workforce, appears on the face of it justifiable, despite the moral aspect of using the toil and sweat of people for the benefit others. There again, the same people who complain about the exploitation by the bosses of their labour are the same people who will purchase apartments for the purpose of generating profit or make use of all the commodities available to them in order to enhance their own being. The same workers holiday or purchase goods that are manufactured in countries that are steeped in human exploitation. They are oblivious and possibly uninterested in the plight of other workers whose sole role is to meet the every need of the visitor, investor and opportunist.

In an article in the Sunday Tribune, Caroline Baum writes “ Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, yet the US economy sailed right on through. …. The first lesson is that an economy’s natural tendency is to grow. Really it is…people want to produce. They produce to profit, to have the means to buy what they want. Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research in Chicago said, “ When I talk to overseas clients, they’re totally focused of the over in-debt consumer”. Bianco says” What I say to them is, the Nasdaq lost 80% of its value, $5 trillion of stock market wealth disappeared, and two planes slammed into the World Trade Centre. And the credit card bill is suppose to do us in?” (Caroline Baum, Sunday Tribune: 2005; p15)

In the totality of global dependency, commodity makes both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat inter-dependent on one another’s ability to acquire a share of the action as producers, consumers or profiteers. ‘ By necessaries I understand not only the commodities that are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for credible people, even the lowest orders, to be without’ (Smith, 1776, quoted in Sen, 1981).

The capitalist system grows and strengthens thereby strengthening and increasing our individual position of class and social standing. The difference today is that class has moved beyond national borders where economically developed societies are seen as upper or middle class with no direct reference to the old styled western proletariat working classes. We now see the unemployed or disabled as socially dependent, void of any status identity that defines a class, which contributes to the capitalist system. The new under class comprises of those who live and work outside the security of the minimal social security system provided by a state that is engulfed in capitalism.

“To all the different varieties of values in use there correspond as many different kinds of useful labour, classified according to the order, genus, species, and variety to which they belong in the social division of labour. This division of labour is a necessary condition for the production of commodities, but it does not follow, conversely, that the production of commodities is a necessary condition for the division of labour”.
(Marx, Capital, Volume 1.).

As multi-national companies( and this will happen in Ireland) shift production of their products to locations where labour costs are low, set up costs are minimal and regulations are literally non-existent, they fall into the trap that bedevils the capitalist system. It cannot sell into a market that it is exploiting for its cheap labour, but there again it cannot conquer a consumer market that is financially deprived of economic growth due to mass unemployment, unless that markets employment base has moved to a different level of technological labour requirements.In Ireland 's case we need to ask " will the current loss of jobs in the Irish job market be adequately replaced in order to maintain our economic development and growth by jobs of a more technological nature and do we have the sufficient level of well educated and skilled people in our workforce to meet that requirement"? If we require to import these workforce skills then we will be promoting social inequality and tension among native Irish citizens.

Does labour produce commodity or does commodity produce labour. Do we train people to do a job that does not exist or do we take an idea, allow individuals to develop it and then pay them handsomely in order for the idea to come to fruition. Do we then apply the fruits of that development on a massive scale so that it becomes beneficial to all, or do we ignore incentive and wait for someone to do it purely for the benefit of humanity as a whole?

In order to stimulate economic growth and increase employment, Ireland shifted the emphasis from agricultural dependency (a serious long term mistake) to a technological dependency. Instead of developing massive processing industries based on the use of our natural resources including agricultural and fisheries, Ireland developed a technological manufacturing base that is constantly changing and shifting ground and is totally reliant on the global market.

Mark’s sees labour as an intrinsic part of all commodities that will eventually determine its value. We can see this happening in Ireland as manufacturers relocate to countries where labour costs are far lower and industrial regulations and controls are at best non-existant. Mark’s makes a differentiation between the production of food as a natural human requirement and the production of material commodities for profit alone. Unfortunately, because of human population and the nature of societies that make up our world, the production of an adequate level of sustainable food production can only be achieved through a system that exploits the very need for that natural requirement in the form of a commodity.

Consumer choice is the stimulant for the production of commodity. Mass production is the method by which commodity becomes accessible to the masses while mechanisation, computerisation and robotics is transforming the 21st Century where labour will bear no significant relevance to the value of the commodity.

Marx says when we sell a product we have created a commodity. For Marx under capitalism the commodity dominates our lives. We now buy what we used to make for ourselves. This is the process of commodification. Under advanced capitalism the commodity seems to exist on its own as if it has produced itself. Under capitalism the commodity is offered to us as our salvation.

The Scottish economist Alan Smith (1723-90) claimed that the individual pursuit of self-interest helps an entire society prosper (1937: 508; orig. 1776). This appears to be true if we look at the demise of the Soviet Union, the economic problems in Cuba and the slow but progressive move by China in adopting Western Style capitalist ideals while at the same time endeavouring to maintain their rigid communist doctrine. Commodity fetishism is sweeping former Eastern block countries where governments are becoming increasingly powerless to impose the acceptability of products and services that consumers have no use for and the market places no value in.

The world of commodity is constantly changing, directed towards youth and branded by name rather than purpose of use. Runners are now identified as Nike, while soft drinks are now Cokes or Pepsi’s. The in-thing is to have the Sony Walkman with the MP3 facility rather than the Sony Walkman. Consumers demand new, innovative and user friendly products. They initially judge a food product on the design of the wrapping and then wait to make a final decision on the value of the product after that product has been consumed. The commodity is now a well packaged and presented product of desire.

The problem with the capitalist system is that in order to satisfy the needs of advanced western societies other less well off societies are condemned to work so that products are produced in order to meet the commodity appetite of western consumers. On the other hand modernisation theorists argue that multinationals unleash the great productivity of the capitalist economic system, which will boost economic development (Rostow, 1978; Madsen, 1980; Berger, 1986; Firebaugh and Beck, 1994).

Coca-Cola can fill a package with liquid and put it in the consumer’s hands much more cheaply than anybody else in the world…Whether it’s filled with tea, New Age or Coca-Cola is really almost irrelevant. (Beverage World, 1993)

From the 1960S manufacturing has gradually changed from a manufacturer driven market to a consumer driven market, with consumers demanding and expecting far greater varieties of products. Commodities are created because consumers are stimulated by manufacturers competitive desire to produce products that will return the maximum profit for their owners and shareholders.

People in the western world generally accepted that the burning of fossil fuels is the main contributory factor to global warming. People fear for their children’s future but still bring their children to school, conduct their shopping or go to work in vehicles that they know are the problem. Petrol and diesel is a commodity in demand that producers and governments know is a problem, but have serious political and financial reservations in attempting to interfere with the supply of that product to the market. As the fuel become scarce the value in the commodity becomes greater. What started, as the exploitation of a natural resource has now become a product of social unrest, uncertainty and loss. Capitalism is the vehicle in which we move around, but commodity is the fuel that keeps the vehicle moving.

I leave Shakespeare the final word.

As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene ii, 144-45